A Swiss court has issued an irrevocable verdict allowing Egypt to become a plaintiff in the case accusing Hosni Mubarak's family and nine of his aides of money laundering.
The ruling was issued on Thursday by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, which rejected an appeal on the decision.
“Egypt had been injured by alleged corrupt actions committed by Mubarak’s former network of associates and family members. The court said it could not rule out the possibility that an organised criminal network was involved,” said the Swissinfo website.
The money smuggled to Switzerland to Mubarak's family and aides make up to 410,000,000 Swiss francs, in principle. This sum of money was frozen in Swiss banks by the federal government immediately after Mubarak's resignation in February 2011, and since then, the Egyptian government has been seeking its recovery.
MENA reported on Saturday that the exact sums of money smuggled to Switzerland from Egypt is difficult to determine as smuggling takes place through very complicated financial networks.
In October last year, Assem el-Gohari, head of the Illicit Gains Authority, released a statement saying "The authority has obtained information that confirms that Mubarak's sons have deposits in Swiss banks worth US$340 million, of which Alaa owns $300 million." He said these assets may have been involved in money laundering.
But in November Farid al-Deeb, Mubarak’s lawyer, said that the money held in Switzerland by the two sons is “legal profits.”
“I submitted the sources of the funds obtained from the sons' work in global stock-market consultation with clients outside of Egypt who have nothing to do with Egypt's market. The revenues entered a joint account owned by the two brothers, which was then separated in March 1, 2008. The funds in the accounts, after years of [accumulating] interest, reached over $300 million. Is it wrong for a man to make legal profits?” Deeb told Foreign Policy.
